Evaluation of tilted cone-beam CT orbits in the development of a dedicated hybrid mammotomograph

Phys Med Biol. 2009 Jun 21;54(12):3659-76. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/54/12/004. Epub 2009 May 28.

Abstract

A compact dedicated 3D breast SPECT-CT (mammotomography) system is currently under development. In its initial prototype, the cone-beam CT sub-system is restricted to a fixed-tilt circular rotation around the patient's pendant breast. This study evaluated stationary-tilt angles for the CT sub-system that will enable maximal volumetric sampling and viewing of the breast and chest wall. Images of geometric/anthropomorphic phantoms were acquired using various fixed-tilt circular and 3D sinusoidal trajectories. The iteratively reconstructed images showed more distortion and attenuation coefficient inaccuracy from tilted cone-beam orbits than from the complex trajectory. Additionally, line profiles illustrated cupping artifacts in planes distal to the central plane of the tilted cone-beam, otherwise not apparent for images acquired with complex trajectories. This indicates that undersampled cone-beam data may be an additional cause of cupping artifacts. High-frequency objects could be distinguished for all trajectories, but their shapes and locations were corrupted by out-of-plane frequency information. Although more acrylic balls were visualized with a fixed-tilt and nearly flat cone-beam at the posterior of the breast, 3D complex trajectories have less distortion and more complete sampling throughout the reconstruction volume. While complex trajectories would ideally be preferred, negatively fixed-tilt source-detector configuration demonstrates minimally distorted patient images.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Mammography / instrumentation*
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Subtraction Technique / instrumentation*
  • Systems Integration
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / instrumentation*